PS0 Online Play Guide: 2nd Edition
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PS0 Online Play Guide
Second Edition
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Preface:
One of Phantasy Star 0's greatest play aspects, and one of its best selling points, is cooperative online multi-player mode through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection server(s).
Sadly, it's also the least described aspect of the game. Discussed only in a mere three paragrapghs in the official strategy guide, published by Brady Games, and covered by
three pages which leave out crucial details within PS0's own instruction booklet. This guide is intended as a supplement to fill-in for the inadequacies of both the official
strategy guide and the insruction booklet.
Hopefully this guide will clear up any frustrations regarding the online play aspects of PS0.
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Table of Contents
I. Your Friend Code
II. Friend Code Roster Explained
III. Friend Code Roster Color Code Status
IV. Free Play Explained
V. Free Player Ratings
VI. Friend Chime
VII. Special Move Commands
VIII. Yes, PS0 is dial-up compatible!
IX. How to play PS0 over a Dial-Up ISP.
X. Limited Communications
XI. Credits
XII. Legal Stuff
Abbreviations Used in this Guide:
FC = Friend Code
FCR = Friend Code Roster
PS0 = Phantasy Star 0
WAP = Wireless Access Point
Wi-Fi = Wireless Fidelity (A type of wireless networking protocol which has been adopted as an industry standard. It has become the most widely accepted and utilized wireless networking protocol on the planet.)
*********************** I **********************
The very first time you play PS0 online your copy of the game will be assigned a "Friend Code". Your FC is a unique twelve digit code used to uniquely identify yourself from other persons playing PS0 online. Once assigned you may enter the "Friend Roster" menu to see what your own FC is displayed below your nickname on the bottom screen.
Displayed just above your FC is your in-game nickname. By deafault, your nickname will be the name you have registered in your DS's main options. You may change your nickname at anytime by selecting "Edit nicknames" from the menu on the top screen of the "Friend Roster" menu.
Be advised that your FC is not set in stone! Should you play your copy of PS0 on a different DS than the one you initially played the game online with your FC will be automatically reassigned. Your FC will be forever changed and you will not be able to go back to having your original FC again. What makes this especially bad is that anyone who had you added to their FC Roster will have to delete and re-add you before you will be able to play with them through "Friend Play" ever again.
********************* II ***********************
The Friend Code Roster serves as a means of storing the unique Friend Codes of up to 64 other players. The FC Roster is accessible by any character you may have in any of three save files on your copy of PS0. Unfortunately there is a are drawbacks to the whole FC system.
Just because you've added someone to your FC Roster doesn't mean you can see them online! The only way you can truly see the status of another person online is if they've also added you to their FC Roster! Unfortunately an offline person and a person who hasn't added you both appear with the same gray colored icon next to their nickname.
In order for someone to join a team you're forming, both you and the joining party must already have each other on your FC Roster's. Now here in lies the beauty of this, the team mates who join up with you needn't have each others FC because they can exchange FC's once in the team automatically by pressing the "Start" button and then selecting the "Add Friend" option from the menu that comes up. It's a two way street though so both persons wishing to exchange FC's in this manner must both select to do this elsewise the automated FC exchange will not take place.
A nice automated feature that the FC Roster posses is that it records the character name of the "Friends" that you have actually played with in a team off to the right side of the added date. This makes it incredibly easy to isentify people on your FC Roster with whom you have actually played with. A very convenient way to figure out who to delete from the Roster should you ever find yourself in need of space to enter some new FC's.
********************* III **********************
Blue - Online, has selected to form a team. You may join this person's team.
Within the blue icon the number of persons who have already selected to join the team will be indicated by a stick figure. A single figure indicates that only the person who originally selected to form the team, the team leader, is present. Two figures indicates the team leader plus one more person, and three figures indicates the team leader and two additonal palyers. There is no icon to designate four players as four is a full team with no vacancy.
Green - Online, available, but hasn't selected to either join or form a team.
Red - Online, but already in a team.
Gray - Offline, or they don't have your Friend Code added to thier Roster!
********************* IV ***********************
There is an up to five minute waiting period on getting assigned into a "Free Play" team from the moment you select the Free Play option. This is entirely dependant on the number of other people who are choosing to play Free Play mode during the same time perior that as you are and which areas they have selected to play in. The server will literally wait until there are either four players assigned to the team, or five minutes if there isn't four players assigned before starting the game for the team. And if you get stuck with no one else joining then it's an error code for you!
There is a certain variable that also plays a major role in Free Play. The further you progress in Story Mode the more areas you unlock to play in online. Which means, a higher level person selecting Free Play may not choose to have any of the initial three default areas checked off for play that a new player would be restricted to. And therefore the server wouldn't even consider assigning either of you to the same team unless you also had those areas unlocked and checked off as areas you're willing to play in.
When playing free play you will only get to play through one area. Once that area has been cleared all team members will need to save and exit the game as Free Play restricts the team to only getting to play one area together at a time. The downside to this is that you likely will not get reassigned to a team with the same players again, which could be viewed as either a good or bad thing.
********************* V ************************
Triangle = Poor.
Player has been given more Poor ratings than Good.
Circle = Neutral.
Player has either received no ratings yet, or their Poor and Good ratings are in equal balance.
Circle within a Circle = Good.
Player has been rewarded with more good rating than Poor ratings by others.
********************* VI ***********************
When playing online in a team, or in solo play, you may hear a rapidly played five tone chime. That sound is the friend chime being played to notify you that someone from your FC Roster has just gotten online.
If you look quickly at the lower screen the Nickname of the person from your FC Roster who just came online will be very briefly displayed inside the Information Window. After a few seconds that persons Color Code Status will also then be flashed for a couple of seconds. Changes in status after the initial status will not be shown to you.
********************* VII **********************
While not an exclusive feature to online play, the special moves you can make your character perform when in the town add personality to the play experience as a whole.
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/ How to read the commands:
|
| L = Left Shoulder Trigger
| R = Right Shoulder Trigger
| ^ = Up on the Directional Pad
| < = Left on the Directional Pad
| > = Right on the Directional Pad
| v = Down on the Directional Pad
| + = Press buttons simultaneously.
\_______________________________
Commands:
L + ^ = Jump
L + < = Shoulder Shrug
L + > = Single Arm Wave
L + v = Fast Dance
L + R + ^ = Double Jump
L + R + < = Lean Forward Head Shaking (Embarrassment/Frustration/Crying)
L + R + > = Double Arm Wave
L + R + v = Slow Dance
********************* VIII *********************
You read that correctly, PS0 works perfectly over a dial-up fed Wi-Fi connection.
A couple of days after getting PS0, I finally got around to hooking up an old Linksys Wireless Access Point (WAP) that's been laying around for a few years. I was stunned at how stupidly simple it was to setup Windows XP to do internet sharing over it. Needless to say I've been playing PS0 online a good bit ever since.
Now, in all fairness, not all dial-up connections are made equal as anyone else who's stuck using it is no doubt quite aware. My connection speed ranges anywhere from 38k to 44k. And for those not in the know, your connection speed is locked in at the time the connection is established with dial-up. So, at moment of typing this, my connection speed is at 40k and PS0 is working perfectly online. I have multiple AIM chats going and a couple of web browser windows up as well. I've successfully played in this configuration with multiple instant messaging chat windows active and a couple of web pages going and have only noted the game to lag if I'm waiting for a paticularly slow loading webpage to load.
********************* IX ***********************
The setup has a few requirements. Here's what you will need:
1. Computer running Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 already configured with a working dial-up ISP account.
2. An available ethernet (LAN) port either on the computer itself or on the switch/hub to which the computer's ethernet port may already be connected to.
3. An ethernet cable, preferably of the CAT5 or CAT6 variety. Any length under 100' should work fine.
4. 802.11B or better Wireless Access Point (WAP).
5. Nintendo DS with a Wi-Fi enabled game.
The Setup:
- Step One
Connect to the internet with your dial-up ISP account as usual.
- Step Two
From within the Windows Control Panel, find and click on Network Connections. On the Network Connection screen you should be able to see your Dial-Up ISP account shown as one of the icons.
- Step Three
Right click on the icon representing your dial-up ISP account and select Properties. Click on the Advanced tab. Next click the check box next to "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection". Now click the "OK" button.
If you have Windows Firewall enabled proceed to Step Four. If not, then proceed to Step Five.
- Step Four
Return to the Windows Control Panel. Find and click on Windows Firewall. Click the Exceptions tab. Scroll down the list and find and check the box next to UPnP Framework. Click OK.
- Step Five
Connect the WAP to the LAN port on your computer. This how is mine is connected, however, if your PC is connected into a network you may connect the WAP to any available port on the network hub/switch and this should still work.
- Step Six
Disconnect from the internet and reboot your computer.
- Step Seven
With all settings changed and saved accordingly and the WAP now connected your interent connection should now be usable by your Nintendo DS... and any other Wi-Fi enabled devices you might have. Congratualtions.
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/ Special Note Concerning WAP's:
|
| If you do no setup a Wireless Encryption Protocol
| Key (aka WEP Key), which is a ten digit numeric
| password, on your WAP then anyone within
| transmission range will be able to access it freely
| while your computer is on. If you do not know how
| to setup a WEP Key on your WAP then I strongly urge
| you to reference the instruction manual or
| installation disc for your WAP to learn how to do
| so. If you no longer have either the instructions
| or installation disk then please check the website
| of the manufacturer of your WAP to locate
| instructions on how to configure the WEP Key.
\____________________________________________
********************* X ************************
No doubt many of you have been wondering why this game has such limited communication features. Why is there no onscreen keyboard to use in game? Why no voice chat? Certainly it's not a hardware limitation for either of those. Quite so, so read on and wonder no more.
Nintendo doesn't permit keyboard or voice communication features to exist in any non-first party titles released for any of their current game systems. It's as simple as that, but why is that? To state it as simply as possible; Nintendo claims this is to protect children from unintentionally communicating with perverts. Sure, sounds reasonable enough, until you consider that Nintendo itself has at least three DS titles available which feature text and/or voice communication online. So what is the real reasoning behind their prohibition against communications? We may never know the truth.
The ability to write or draw whatever you want on the screen and share it as a chat bubble has been a huge breakthrough on Sega's part in circumventing a portion of Nintendo's game developers' contract prohibiting, specifically, voice and text based communications in a non-first party software title. With this circumvention of an established policy it is highly likely that Nintendo will be revising their policies to prevent any future third party games from doing what has been done in PS0.
********************* XI ***********************
I'd like to thank soul21 from the Sega.com forums for his willing aid during the testing process of some of my theories. Sega of America for bringing this incredible game stateside. And Sonic Team for creating PS0's predecessor Phantasy Star Online.
********************* XII **********************
"Phantasy Star Online" and "Phantasy Star 0" are registered trademarks of Sega and are used here without permission. "Friend Code" and "Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection" are registered trademarks of Nintendo and are also used here without permission.
This FAQ can be found posted on select forums and at the follwing websites:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/
http://www.segaforums.com/psoarchive/
This guide is intended for personnal use and may not be republished anywhere without permission of the author.
PS0 Online Play Guide © 2009 by game player s (aka Tweeg).
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Originally Posted by The Deleter
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